


Liquid Courage

by InspectorBoxer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Drunk Dialing, Drunk Kara, F/F, Sweet and Amused Cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8573014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InspectorBoxer/pseuds/InspectorBoxer
Summary: “Kara Danvers, you’re drunk dialing me.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn’t resist adding to the “Kara drunk dials Cat” stories after that last episode. Any and all typos are my fault since I’m giving my beta a break on this one. :) And I don’t remember seeing anyone else title their drunk Kara fic with this title so hopefully I’m not copying anyone. Let me know if I am!

Kara stared blearily at her phone. Make that phones. There seemed to be three of them.

Frowning with concentration, she called up her text messages, searching through them until she found the conversation she wanted. Her frown deepened when some part of her rum-muddled mind noted it had been four weeks since she’d last heard from Cat.

A little voice in her head told Kara this was a bad idea, but the alcohol made her brave and she typed anyway.

_Hi._

Strong opening line, Kara thought with a satisfied nod.

A few minutes passed with no response, and Kara thought about calling, frustrated with being ignored. She staggered across the room to her couch, sinking down on it unsteadily, wondering idly how she’d gotten home. The room tilted and spun, reminding her of what it was like to fly out of control, and she closed her eyes only to open them again when her phone dinged.

_Do you know what time it is here?_

A smile lifted Kara’s lips. She could hear Cat’s voice as she read the words.

 _Where’s here?_ Kara asked.

Three dots appeared, indicating Cat was typing wherever she was, and Kara felt a happy ball of warmth bloom in her chest. Cat was talking to her again. She’d missed this. Needed this.

_It’s the middle of the night, Keira._

“Awww. She called me Keira.” Suddenly sentimental, Kara got a little choked up. “Thought sleep was for slackers,” she said out loud as she typed the words, giggling.

Her phone rang a moment later, and Kara nearly launched it across the room in surprise. “Hello?”

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were drunk,” Cat muttered by way of greeting.

Kara snickered, giddy. She’d missed Cat so much, and hearing the familiar perturbed tone to her voice made Kara obscenely happy. “Hi, Ms. Grant!”

There was a funny silence on the other end of the line.

“Are you?” Cat asked slowly, concern and curiosity replacing her irritation.

“What?”

“Drunk,” Cat said flatly.

“Noooo.” Kara flopped back against the couch. “I just had one drink. I can’t get drunk off just one drink, right?”

“What the hell was it and where can I get some?” Cat sniffed.

“Some kind of rum. It makes me feel floaty.”

“Floaty, hmm?” An amused edge had entered Cat’s voice and it did delicious things to Kara’s body. She loved the sound of it, had ached for it every day they’d been apart.

“Hopefully it’s a good kind of… ‘floaty.’”

Kara smiled fondly, listening as Cat moved around in bed to get more comfortable. The thought of her beneath the sheets, her voice pitched low for Kara’s ears only, made Kara warm all over. She would have given anything to be sliding under those sheets with Cat, to maybe find her naked and waiting. Clearing her throat, Kara fanned herself with her free hand, increasingly hot. “Extra good,” Kara slurred when she realized Cat was waiting on a response. “But I don’t know if that’s the drink or just hearing your voice.”

Kara thought she heard a tiny gasp of surprise on the other end of the line, but she didn’t read anything into it.

“Kara Danvers, you’re drunk dialing me.”

“Nope! You called me, remember? I just wanted to talk to someone. Everybody’s not here. And I miss you most.” Kara wished she could see Cat’s face. Hearing her voice was amazing, but it couldn’t compete with seeing those hazel eyes, that knowing smile.

“I miss you, too,” Cat admitted slowly, “and while this scenario presents itself with any number of tempting opportunities, I don’t want you to say anything you wouldn’t say to me when you’re sober.”

“Like what?” Kara took that as a challenge.

“You should go to bed, Kara.”

“Would have liked to go to bed with you.” Kara frowned, wondering if she’d just said that out loud, and why it would be bad if she did.

Kara definitely heard a gasp this time. “Like that,” Cat said softly. “You would never say that to me sober.”

“Wanted to,” Kara groused. “But you make me nervous.”

“You make me nervous too,” Cat murmured. “Even more so like this,” she added drolly.

Kara giggled. “Cat?”

“Yes?”

“You should come back.”

“I should, should I?”

Kara nodded enthusiastically only to close her eyes as the room spun dizzyingly again. “You could help me take off my big girl pants and own my power.”

There was another long silence until Kara heard Cat chuckle dryly. “You’re going to be mortified if you remember this conversation.”

“Or… or… I could be a lighthouse and you could dock in my port.” Kara liked that come on better. That was smooth.

Cat actually snorted at that. “I’m getting a middle of the night booty call from a drunk Kara Danvers. Chalk this up to another unexpected life experience.”

“Is that bad?” Kara asked, sobering slightly at the thought she’d upset the other woman.

“No,” Cat murmured. “It’s rather entertaining, actually, but it’s also dangerous. We should hang up now.”

“Please don’t.” Kara swallowed. “I miss you.”

“Kara…”

“Tell me you miss me, too. That you think of me from time to time.”

Cat took a shaky breath. “More often than that.”

“Tell me where you are,” Kara pleaded. “I need to see you. Things will be better if I can just see you.”

“Oh, Kara…”

“Unless… unless you’re not alone.” Kara swallowed hard again, her instant jealousy burning through some of the alcohol muddling her mind.

“I’m not.”

“Oh,” Kara whispered, heartbroken.

“Carter is here.”

“Oh,” Kara said again, exhaling in relief and watching the room spin once more. “You made me think…”

“Kara, sweetheart…”

Going still at the endearment, Kara clenched her jaw, willing herself to focus.

“Go to bed,” Cat urged.

“Not without you,” Kara said stubbornly. “So much I want to say to you… so many things… I…”

“Not like this.”

“But what if I don’t remember next time? What if… what if I lose my nerve?”

There was a long pause. “I’m in Metropolis,” Cat said hesitantly. “If you remember this conversation tomorrow, then come find me. Bring some of this floaty rum of yours.”

“It’s dangerous for humans,” Kara said with another frown, knowing that was a bad thing to admit but forgetting why. She’d ask Alex about it later.

“Is it now?” Cat asked, bemused.

Kara slowly laid down on the couch and closed her eyes. The spinning room had been fun at first, but now it was making her a little sick. “Uh-huh.”

“Hmm,” Cat purred.

“You’ll really let me come see you tomorrow?”

“If you remember this. If you can _face_ me after this.” Cat chuckled softly.

“I’ll remember,” Kara pledged seriously. “Will you own my power?” She giggled again, wondering if Cat knew she wasn’t really talking about her power at all.

“You offering it to me?”

“Oh yeah…” Kara drew the words out in what she thought was a top-of-the-line impersonation of Winn.

“If you remember and have the courage to show up, then maybe we’ll see.”

“I’ll be there. I need to go get sick now,” Kara said matter-of-factly.

“Drink lots of water. Night, my silly girl.”

The affection in Cat’s voice made everything better.

“Night, my beautiful queen,” Kara replied in kind with a smile as she staggered to her feet, half walking, half tripping toward the bathroom.

Cat chuckled at the title. “I hope you remember,” she murmured, “but I’ll understand if you don’t.”

Kara gripped the doorframe to the bathroom, holding on for dear life. “Cat?”

“Hmm?”

“If I forget, will you remind me?”

“We’ll see,” Cat said again. “We’ll see.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'd originally just planned this as a one-shot, I had to write a few scenarios before I hit on a conclusion that felt right. :) Hope you like it.
> 
> Thanks to zennie for her suggestions and edits!
> 
> By the way, this chapter takes place a few days after Alex's coming out so she and Maggie are not together yet in this story.

“She’s really cute,” Kara coaxed as she nibbled on a cruller, her third since Alex had surprised her with a box of pastry goodness for breakfast.

“That’s nice,” Alex mumbled finishing off the last of her powdered donut and wiping her hands on a napkin.

“She’s sweet, and funny, and…”

“And she’s not Maggie,” Alex said gently with a sad smile. “I love you, Kara, but you’ve got to stop trying to set me up. I came out to you a few days ago, and you’ve already shown me pictures of five of your co-workers. The women at CatCo are going to think you’re some kind of perv.”

Releasing a frustrated sigh, Kara plopped down on the couch next to her sister. “You’ve got to take chances, Alex.”

“What happened to always telling me I take too many?”

“I’m not talking about deciding whether to charge a ten-foot alien with nothing but a pocket knife and a smile. You need to get out there,” Kara motioned at the windows behind the TV, “in the dating pool. Dive,” she added with a smile, thinking fondly of Cat but ignoring the ache she felt every time the woman crossed her mind.

“And what do you know about it?” Alex asked teasingly, wrapping one arm around her sister’s shoulders and drawing her back into a hug. “The closest thing you’ve had to a date lately was getting drunk with Mon-El the other night.”  

“Ugh. Don’t remind me. I actually woke up _in_ the bathtub.”

Alex was conspicuously quiet for a moment. “I would have paid to see that,” she finally admitted. “Does that make me a bad sister?”

“Yes. Very bad.” Kara eased away and gave Alex a disgruntled look, but she was secretly pleased she could make her sister smile. Alex had done very little of that recently. “I don’t understand why humans like to get drunk. I mean, sure, at first it’s kind of fun, but then it’s really, really not. I don’t even remember how I got here,” Kara muttered. “There’s this big, night-sized gap in my memory, like getting stuck in the Phantom Zone for ten hours.”

“I had two agents I trust, two _female_ agents, bring you home.”

Kara frowned, wishing she could remember anything from that night. From the moment she’d left the bar, everything was just a blur. She couldn’t shake the feeling she’d done something, said something, that was important for her to remember. “Did I say anything stupid?” she asked hesitantly.

“You sang show tunes the whole way home. They said you have a lovely voice.”

Kara groaned in embarrassment and Alex hugged her again. “Relax. It’s kind of a rite of passage you and your Kryptonian biology skipped right over in college. Now you know what the rest of us go through. Can’t say I’ve ever woken up in the bathtub, though.”

“I guess it could be worse,” Kara muttered with a small smirk. “You remember that time you drunk dialed your…”

Alex leaned forward when Kara trailed off into silence, Kara’s frame taking on sudden tension. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh Rao. I didn’t.” Kara scrambled off the couch, stumbling in her haste to her kitchen island where she snatched up her phone, sorting through her text messages. “Please tell me I didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” Alex asked, getting to her feet and joining her sister. “Did you drunk dial someone? Or drunk text? That’s worse because then they have blackmail fodder.” Alex watched as her sister went still, her blue eyes widening. “Uh-oh.”

“I texted Cat,” Kara breathed.

“Cat? _Cat Grant_?” Alex leaned forward, trying to see the screen, but Kara yanked it back to her chest. “Whoa, Kara,” Alex said with a barely stifled laugh. “What did you _say_?”

Kara peeked at the screen again, ignoring how amused Alex was by all this. The conversation had been short and innocuous so she wasn’t sure why her heart was pounding so hard. “I…” Reluctantly, she handed Alex the phone.

“You make me sick,” Alex groused. “How is it you use correct spelling and grammar even when you’re wasted?” She shook her head as she thumbed through the texts. “You woke her up, but I don’t think you said anything embarrassing.” Frowning, Alex played a hunch and went into Kara’s call history. “Uh oh,” she said again.

“What?” Kara moved closer. “What?”

“Cat called _you_. You guys talked for about fifteen minutes.”

“Oh Rao,” Kara said again, vague memories taunting her just beyond her reach. Had she said something about lighthouses? Her brow furrowed as she struggled to remember any part of their conversation.

“I’m sure you’re fine, Kara. You were probably adorably tipsy, went on about missing her, and she humored you. I seriously doubt you propositioned your ex-boss or anything.” Alex chuckled at the very idea.

Kara blinked. “OH RAO.”

****

_I remember._

Cat stared at the text message, her heart rate kicking up in surprise and something alarmingly like hope. It had been two days since Kara’s drunken declarations of desire, two days of Cat vacillating between pretending the conversation had never happened and resisting the overwhelming urge to call Kara to remind her. Two days of annoying indecision, and Cat did not _do_ indecision.

Except now. Now she didn’t know what to say, what to do. The fact that she was on her fourth generous glass of scotch this evening didn’t help.

_Can we talk?_ Kara pleaded.

Swallowing, Cat was surprised by her own nerves. The damn girl affected her like no one ever had, and the thought of confronting what was between them was both exhilarating and terrifying. Kara’s unexpected text had jolted her into temporary sobriety, but Cat was still teetering on the edge of being drunk herself. Engaging with Kara right now would be dangerous.

_Cat?_ Kara asked when she took too long to respond.

Cat could picture the sad puppy dog eyes and she caved with disgusting ease. _If you feel the urge to apologize, there is no need._

_Please?_

Aching to hear the younger woman’s voice, Cat sighed. _Fine. Call me._ She stood up, swaying a bit as she crossed to the hotel room coffee maker. Sobering up and quickly was a must lest she make a few inappropriate suggestions of her own.

A knock on her hotel room door had Cat nearly coming out of her skin. She glanced down at herself and frowned. Dressed in jeans and a soft, navy blue hoodie, she wasn’t exactly ready for visitors. With another resigned sigh, she crossed to the door and yanked it open, already suspecting who she was going to find.

Kara smiled timidly on the other side. “Hi.” Her gaze swept curiously over Cat, pausing on her bare feet before lifting to Cat’s eyes once more. A tiny grin emerged, but Kara quickly stifled it.

Leaning against the doorframe, Cat regarded her with barely-concealed amusement. “If memory serves, this is how we started our last chat. Should I expect a repeat performance?”

“Not tonight. May I?” Kara motioned inside the hotel room and Cat stepped aside, allowing her to enter.

Closing and locking the door, Cat followed, guiltily taking in the sight of the younger woman in the flesh. It had been too long, and absence had indeed made Cat’s heart grow fonder. “Would you like a drink?”

Kara smiled shyly. “Think I’ll pass. Like… forever.”

Cat smirked. “Probably for the best. I’m afraid I’m all out of ‘floaty’ rum. The single malt is good, though. A little too good obviously.” Cat sat unsteadily on the arm of the sofa, watching Kara look at anything and everything but her for a long moment before finally finding the courage to meet her gaze head-on.

“You look good, Cat,” Kara said softly, surprising her.

So did Kara. In form-fitting jeans and a black button down shirt, Kara managed to look both positively prim and simultaneously sinful. “It’s Cat now, hmm?” Cat teased, unable to resist the temptation to make the younger woman blush. It worked.

Kara cleared her throat. “I just thought… since you know I’m… Would you prefer Ms. Grant?”

Cat drew in a slow, measured breath, willing herself to think clearly when all she wanted was to simply stare at Kara. “No,” she murmured. While things were awkward, and Kara was understandably nervous, the familiar warmth between them was still there, still seductive as ever. More than a month away from one another hadn’t been able to dull the attraction, and tonight it seemed more potent than ever. “I suppose we’ve moved beyond that.” She studied Kara for a moment. “When did you finally remember?”

“This morning.” Kara adjusted her glasses. “It took me pretty much all day to psyche myself up to come here and apologize.”

“I told you, I don’t need an apology.”

Some of the tension in Kara’s shoulders eased. “But you deserve one. I… said some very inappropriate things to you, and I am so sorry...”

“Mmm. You did,” Cat agreed with a slow smile, enjoying the blush that roared back onto Kara’s cheeks. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Tucking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, Kara rolled her eyes. “That makes two of us.”

“Your pickup lines need a little work, however. Owning your power? Docking in your port? Really, Kara?” Cat drawled.

Closing her eyes, Kara’s face scrunched up rather adorably in embarrassment, and Cat wondered what the girl would do if she kissed her for the hell of it. Cat dropped her gaze to the floor and rubbed her forehead, trying to erase the thought.

“I’m afraid I’m the one who has been drinking tonight. This might not be the best time…”

“Do you want to badly proposition me?” Kara offered with a weak, breathless laugh. “Seems only fair.”

Cat’s breath caught. She knew Kara was joking, but the idea was a little too provocative. “Kara…”

“Seriously, Cat… Ms. Grant... I’m… I’m sorry. If I made you uncomfortable the other night. If I embarrassed you…”

It was Cat’s turn to roll her eyes. “Do you really think you embarrassed me? Honestly, I’ve drunk dialed more people than I can literally remember.”

“Bet you never propositioned your boss before.”

“Well… no,” Cat admitted. She’d always had an airtight survival instinct not even alcohol could corrupt, but Kara might prove her undoing if she weren’t careful. “Unless telling Perry White to suck my left tit when I got hammered and quit the Daily Planet the first time counts.”

Huffing out a surprised laugh, Kara quickly stifled it with her hand over her mouth.

“And then there was my first show runner. Pretty sure I told him he could suck my…”

“Y-Yeah,” Kara interrupted. “Point taken, but it’s not really the same thing.”

Cat shrugged. “Who else did you text? Do you have an apology tour planned for your evening?”

“Just you,” Kara confessed. “I guess I just really wanted to talk to you. I’ve missed you. A lot.”

Melting a little at the declaration, Cat’s inhibitions unraveled further.

“And then after we talked, I apparently crawled in my bathtub and passed out.”

Oh, Cat would have paid good money to see that. She brought her fingertips to her lips, pleased by the thought she’d been the only one Kara had wanted to talk to. Cat stared at the younger woman, but Kara didn’t look away now, those beautiful blue eyes watching Cat curiously and a little fearfully.

Before she knew it, Cat stood and sauntered closer. Reaching up, she slipped Kara’s glasses off with both hands. “We don’t need these now, do we?” she asked quietly, folding the arms and setting them aside.

Kara eyed the glasses longingly but she reluctantly shook her head.

Cat sighed. “You just had to go and say the things we weren’t saying. The words behind the words.”

Frowning, Kara’s brow furrowed in confusion. “The words behind the words? Is that anything like the anger behind the anger?” she asked, attempting to keep her tone light.

“The things that always hung there in the air between us, Kara. Those things we both knew and never said.” Some part of Cat’s brain shouted at her to shut up but the words kept coming. “Now they’re real. They’re out there.” Cat swung out her arm and nearly knocked over a vase, but Kara caught it without looking and set it upright. “And we can’t put them back. No,” she said in a conspiratorial voice, “the genie is out of the bottle.”

Kara licked her lips. “Um… I think you might have crawled in that bottle after the genie left. You’re, you’re a little drunker than I realized.”

Cat grinned mischievously, suspecting Kara was right. Maybe it was seeing the woman who was equal parts Kara and Supergirl before her that emboldened her, or maybe the alcohol had fully and completely drowned her better sense, either way, Cat no longer wanted to hold back, no longer wanted to be so damn _careful_ with the Girl of Steel.

“Are you wearing it?”

“What?” Kara practically squeaked, her breathing a little too rough, a little too fast as Cat came closer, reaching up to toy with the top button on Kara’s shirt.

Wordlessly, Cat teased it open.

“Cat…” Kara lapsed into silence as Cat’s fingers fumbled lowered, undoing the next button, and then another, but Kara wasn’t stopping her.

When the fourth button came free, Cat gently parted Kara’s shirt, sucking down a little gasp of wonder. Supergirl’s crest stared back at her, and Cat reached up, tracing the exposed ‘S’ reverently. 

“My super girl is Supergirl,” Cat whispered, no longer able to pretend otherwise as she met those blue eyes up close. “Can’t lie to myself anymore when you’re out there putting yourself in danger, hmm?”

“Cat.” Kara’s voice was soft now and so was her gaze, something heavy and electric settling in the air between them. Cat knew damn well Kara felt it too when her fingers drifted lower, Kara’s stomach quivering in reaction to her touch.

“I was flattered by your clumsy propositions, Kara. Even more so now that I know I was your only call.” Cat looked up at Kara again. “But I have one question.”

Kara swallowed, waiting.

“How much of our conversation was the alcohol talking and how much of it was you?”

“I don’t know,” Kara admitted after a moment, but her gaze dipped to Cat’s lips, and heat ignited low in Cat’s stomach.

The way Kara was looking at her was too tempting to resist. “I think I know one way we can find out,” Cat said. 

Before Cat could act, though, Kara beat her to it, clutching at a sliver of that Supergirl confidence and claiming Cat’s mouth in a heady kiss. Cat moaned softly in surprise, kissing Kara back until some annoying inner voice that was too sober for her own good convinced her to back off.

But Kara was having none of that. She chased Cat’s lips, unwilling to give up the feeling, tangling one hand in Cat’s hair to urge her closer, the other resting possessively on Cat’s hip. They finally parted slowly, both breathing hard.

“Guess that answers that question,” Cat said thickly.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” Kara murmured, but she looked tempted to do it again. 

“If you hadn’t, I would have.” 

“Ms. Grant…” Kara took a step back, clearly trying to compose herself.

“Don’t go losing your nerve on me now, Supergirl.” 

“Cat,” Kara corrected on an uneven breath. “I didn’t come here to… to…”

“Too bad.” Cat smirked. She reached out, gripping the sides of Kara’s open shirt to keep her from running or even flying off. “But if… if this is something you want, if I’m _someone_ you want, we should explore this further when both of us are at our sober best, hmm?”

Kara searched her features, cautious but hopeful. “What if you don’t want this when you’re sober?”

“I’ll want it,” Cat confessed, her stomach tumbling with nerves and a kind of eager anticipation she hadn’t felt in years. “The words behind the words, remember? The feelings were already there, Kara. It just sadly took a little liquid courage on both our parts to share them.”

Slowly, beautifully, Kara smiled. “Then… will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

Cat leaned in, kissing Kara goodnight with a promise. “It’s a date.”  


End file.
